Mount Rudy Erupts

On the money front: "GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani brought in nearly $16.8 million from speaking fees, consulting, legal work, book royalties and other employment last year, according to his financial disclosure report made public Wednesday.

"Democratic candidate John Edwards earned nearly $1.3 million last year, according to his report. That included a salary of $479,512 as an adviser to a New York-based hedge fund, Fortress Investment Group. Meanwhile, Democratic rival Barack Obama earned more than $570,000 in book royalties on top of his Senate salary."

So being a hedge fund "adviser" pays more than being president.

So how did Chris Wallace, Wendell Goler and Brit Hume do?

"One winner: Fox News itself," says David Frum. "The probing and incisive questions - and the willingness to follow up loose ends - meant that the 1-minute limit did not feel unduly constrained. Even more impressive: the questioners' solid grip on their egos. No weird 'look at me' questions. Always a keen awareness that the candidates are the people the audience has tuned in to see.

"Makes me think the Democrats did themselves an injury by denying themselves access not only to Fox's audience but to its - yes - fair & balanced questioners."

Betsy's Page is on the same page:

"Fox News showed MSNBC and Politico how to do a real debate. There weren't those screwy questions from Chris Matthews that just set your teeth on edge. This is why it's way too early to hold these debates. This is the period that I refer to in class as the 'Spiral of political death.' A candidate isn't well known and appears low in the polls. So they don't get media attention or campaign donations. Which means that they'll be even lower in the polls. Rinse and repeat. Some of these candidates who got into the race either to push a certain message like Tom Tancredo or Ron Paul have had their chance and they're not getting traction. Others just listened to the voices in their heads and their aides who tell them that they have what it takes to be president. But no one else seems to have heard those voices. For example, how many people even remembered that Jim Gilmore was in this race? . . .

"It's time to narrow down this field. Huckabee is also one of these wannabes for whom there is no logic as to why they should be in this race. But he deserves to stay in just for his line that we had a Congress that spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop. Did Rudy Giuliani pay off Ron Paul to set him up with that great opportunity to crack down on Paul's ideas that we brought 9/11 on ourselves by being over in Saudia Arabia? . . . John McCain has to come up with some new lines. Anyone who has followed politics at all (and face it, who else would be watching a debate in May, 2007) has heard his drunken soldier line. It just made him seem old to repeat the same jokes he's been making for years."

But the aforementioned Marty Kaplan says: "You didn't have to watch the Fox debate all the way to Rudy's Quayle moment to know something odd was afoot. Right at the beginning, as each candidate was introduced, a graphic appeared with the following data: Age. Religion. Family. Career. I suppose I shouldn't have found it breathtaking that Religion was the second identifying feature -- not from the network where Bill O'Reilly's synonym for Democrats, 'secular progressives,' is just another word for Satanists."

Is that the worst example he could find?

The Nation's John Nichols soured on McCain hours before the debate: